([syndicated profile] charlie_stross_diary_feed Dec. 26th, 2025 03:07 pm)

It's been years and years since I last went trawling for webcomics worth reading, so it's time for an update: obviously online search is pretty much useless, but we ought to be able to crowdsource something here.

I keep a separate browser window for webcomics; here's a selection of my currently-open tabs, excluding syndicated stuff that shows up in newspapers. (So no "This Modern World" or "The Far Side".) What am I ignoring? Preferably new in the past decade, which rules out old-timers like "Digger" or "Girl Genius" (arguably I should have ommitted QC and xkcd too, but they're favourites of mine).

Questionable Content has been first on my daily reading list for a long time ... almost 20 years? It's Jeff Jacques' "internet comic strip about friendship, romance, and robots ... set in the present day and pretty much the same as our own except there are robots all over the place and giant space stations." And more plot threads than I can possibly summarize, given that it's a sprawling soap opera unfolding at roughly 250 strips per year.

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal which, despite the name, comes out almost every day, is the antithesis of QC: every daily strip is a standalone, and it has an alarming tendency to lob philosophical hand grenades at entire fields of scientific endeavour. By Zack Weinersmith, who's also written some good books.

xkcd is the third classic, by sometime NASA robot guy Randal Munroe; like SMBC it tends to focus on the sciences, with a distinctly whimsical take on things. Should need no introduction, but if you don't already know, it's where those stick figure science comics come from ...

Kill Six Billion Demons Less of a single strip at a time webcomic and more of an episodic graphic novel, KSBD is distinctly Japanese/Hindu/Chinese/Hellish in tone: it seems to follow the travails of an American female student called Alison who winds up in hell, befriends demons, gets caught up in a holy war to end the universe, and ascends towards godhood, but that's kind of selling it short. Come for the amazing artwork, stay for the batshit theology. By Abbadon.

Pepper & Carrot by David Revoy is thematically the exact antithesis of KSBD: P&C is set in a very kitsch, cozy, D&D style generic fantasy world. Pepper is a young and less-than-competent student of witchcraft, and Carrot is her one-brain-cell ginger cat (and hapless familiar): they get in trouble a lot. (Spin-offs: if you want to dip in to a one-shot rather than a serial, there's Mini-Fantasy Theatre--same character but every story is self-contained.)

Runaway to the Stars is an extremely crunchy hard SF slice-of-life serial by Jay Eaton, following Talita (an alien centaur-oid alien fostered by humans) and her friends. Did I say "crunchy"? The world-building is extreme. (And you'll never think catgirls are sexy again!)

Phobos and Deimos A differently-crunchy solarpunk story about a girl from Mars who, exiled by an invasion, ends up as a refugee on Earth, where she has to make a new life for herself and grapple with the culture shock of attending high school in Antarctica as a 'fugee.

RuriDragon an online manga set in a Japanese high school, following student Ruri Aoki, who wakes up one day and notices horns have started growing from her head. When she asks her mother about it, mum confesses that her father was a dragon ... RuriDragon was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine in 2022; this is an unofficial fan translation. (It follows Japanese formatting conventions, so read it from the top down and right-to-left or the dialog won't make much sense.)

SideQuested by AlePresser & K.B. Spangler is a web serial/graphic novel in progress set in a slightly less generic fantasy realm than Pepper & Carrot (this one shows some signs of Xianxia/cultivation influences). It focusses on the adventures of an extremely sensible level-headed librarian-in-training girl named Charlie, who clearly has absolutely no magical abilities whatsoever--until one day her absentee father turns up with some unexpected news: he's the King's Champion, her mother is a foreign princess, and she's needed at Court because the King's head-in-the-clouds son Prince Leopold is being a problem and her father needs her to sort him out in a hurry ...

Eldritch Darling Nothing to see here, just your usual webcomic about an eldritch horror from beyond spacetime who falls in love with a lesbian. H. P. Lovecraft would not approve!

Unspeakable Vault of Doom is an irregular series of extremely goofy web strips that H. P. Lovecraft would definitely disapprove of, not least because he occasionally features in it, along with his more notorious creations!

Finally, two from the cheesecake dimension:

Oglaf is almost invariably NSFW, rude, and very, very funny. Weekly, started out 20 years ago as an attempt to do bad D&D porn then kind of wandered off topic, and these days there's only about an 80% probability that any given weekly strip will include explicit sex scenes, stabbings, or jokes.

Grrl Power (Caution: author has a severe male gaze problem) As the "about" page says: A comic about super heroines. Well there are guys too but mostly it's about the girls. Doing the things that super powered girls do. Fighting crime, saving the world, dating, shopping, etc. There are also explosions, cheesecake, beefcake, heroes and villains, angels and demons, cyborgs, probably ninjas, and definitely aliens. Lots and lots of aliens. Some of whom are only visiting Earth as sex tourists ...

And that's my round-up!

Your turn. What web comics do you frequent new webcomics that aren't on this list?

([syndicated profile] cakewrecks_feed Dec. 26th, 2025 02:00 pm)

Posted by john (the hubby of Jen)

The week after Christmas is traditionally the slowest week of the year for Cake Wrecks. Apparently, people are "spending time with family" or whatever. So today, I thought I'd do something different.

Because Jen's asleep and I can do what I want because she's not the boss of me!*

(*Okay, technically, she is my boss. Love you, sweetie!)

...So, um, enjoy!

OHHHH!

There were green alligators...

 

...and long-necked geese,

 

some pimply-backed horses...

 

...and some chimpanzees.

 

Some cats,

 

and rats,

 

and elephants...

 

...but sure as you're born,

"Hey!"

 

the creepiest of all was the unicorn!

O.o

 

Thanks to Leslie J., Terri C., Luci, Samantha P., Sara A., Rysha M., Kathie N., Jenn M., and Chris B., who have probably all heard this song even though Jen hadn't because apparently, she didn't listen to 70's Irish folk music as a child. Weirdo.

*****

P.S. In the spirit of continued learning and broadening our horizons, I found you some take-home reading:

What If? Serious Scientific Answers To Absurd Hypothetical Questions

(Just a reminder that everything you purchase through my daily Amazon links - even if it's not that item! - helps support me and John, so thank you! You can also see a list of some of my favorite linked items here.)

*****

And from my other blog, Epbot:

puddleshark: (Default)
([personal profile] puddleshark Dec. 26th, 2025 02:45 pm)
Pondfield Cove 4

A grey Boxing Day, with a bitter north-east wind blowing on the high ground. Not a day to be walking the ramparts of an Iron Age hillfort, so I did the other traditional Boxing Day walk, the more sheltered one, across the Army Ranges to the sea at Worbarrow.

Read more... )
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([personal profile] oursin Dec. 26th, 2025 12:00 pm)
Happy birthday, [personal profile] theodosia!
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([personal profile] fred_mouse Dec. 26th, 2025 06:40 pm)

I am a little bemused to discover that it is more than a week since I last posted. I am entirely failing to work out what has been going on. Surgery recovery seems to be going better than the first time, although there might be some contribution from the fact that staying nearly flat on my back is the best way to not irritate the pulled shoulder muscle.

The last two days have been having Weather! with yesterday's temperature (in the city, so 15km north) peaking at 43°C. Today is quite mellow; it is currently 20°C and I'm resenting the breeze for not being warm enough. We have, however, swapped the warm quilt/doona for the very thin one made by Artisanat's mother.

There are fires, with friends currently hosting parents who have been evacuated (D&F, D's parents, I believe). The gold mine at Boddington is listed as on fire. I am choosing to not go down the rabbit hole of working out what that means, although I suspect it is actually bushland on the same site that is on fire.

Youngest finished up their internship on Friday last week, and is beyond bored. Fortunately, they are reasonably good at keeping themself amused (although, if it weren't that all retail and hospitality work is already grabbed for the season and winding down, I suspect they would be out there trying to get another job).

I have been working on two low energy tasks - digital decluttering, and finishing books. Over in the Discord for the Habitica Book Club, I signed up for a bingo card with 16 books that I have abandoned ('paused') over the last however long. The challenge runs December/January, and I've finished three and progressed two. Which isn't really as much as I would like, but is well within the goal of 'make progress'. I probably won't get around to writing those up, and I'm kind of okay about that.

I do have a stack of other notes that might get turned into blog posts at some point, but I'm very much allowing life to just happen, and if the enthusiasm hits, that is a win.

As for uni: I took this week off entirely as recovery / summer break, and I'll go back (work from home) on Monday. I have to have a stack of my ethics application done by mid-January, and before that can be written I need to have a solid theoretical framework for what questions I want to ask. Which means reading about 50 papers next week ('reading').

Craft wise I have abandoned hope on getting Eldest's quilt top done by the end of the year. Not being allowed to do much with the right arm and having upset the shoulder has meant that sewing has been Too Hard. I do have thoughts about just getting the pieces cut though, and maybe I'll do that this evening.

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([personal profile] nanila posting in [community profile] awesomeers Dec. 26th, 2025 08:09 am)
It's challenge time!

Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.

Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!

Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.

Go!
Fandom: Original Work, Christmas Tales & Traditions, Barbie
Pairings/Characters: OCs; a child & her faithful dolls.
Rating: General Audiences
Length: 612
Content Notes: No Content Warnings Apply
Creator Tags: Barbie Dolls, Christmas, Christmas Tree

Creator Links: (AO3) [archiveofourown.org profile] Rubynye; (Dreamwidth) [personal profile] minoanmiss; (Tumblr) [tumblr.com profile] rubynye

Theme: Amnesty, Female Relationships, Action/Adventure, Comfort Fic, Female Friendships, Folklore & Fairytales, Teams

Summary: All around her spread the magnificent brilliance of the shining tree, its decorations alight and glittering.

Author’s Notes: Merry Christmas to my dear friend Amaebi!

Reccer's Notes: A little girl’s Barbie dolls come to life to keep her company on Christmas Eve. The author maintains a keenly lived-in sense of scale; acting as a team in the fashion of the Madagascar Penguins, the dolls scale the California redwood heights and marvel in the celestial lighting of the Christmas tree (while remaining vigilant against the approach of the Parents—or, worse, the Kitty!)

A nostalgic snapshot of the fierce Velveteen Rabbit Reality of our imaginary friends.

Fanwork Links: How to View a Christmas Tree, by [archiveofourown.org profile] Rubynye for [personal profile] amaebi.
Part 18 of How To Indulge Your Writerly Soul.
Fandom: Chen Qing Ling; A Christmas Carol
Pairings/Characters: Meng Yao | Jin Guangyao, Jin Guangshan, Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin, Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Wen Ruohan, Background & Cameo Characters
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Length: 7,500
Content Notes: No Archive Warnings Apply, (although Jin Guangshan is his own content warning.)
Creator Tags: Minor Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji/Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Inspired by A Christmas Carol, Crack, Christmas Crack, Breaking the Fourth Wall, Jin Guangyao is gonna soften his dad's heart if it kills him, Jiang Cheng wasn't even supposed to be here today, Lan Wangji is only here for the snacks, (Wei Ying is the snack), Daddy Issues: The Play, It's WangXian but that's not the focus here

Creator Links: (AO3) [archiveofourown.org profile] Mikkeneko; (Tumblr) [tumblr.com profile] mikkeneko

Theme: Amnesty, Uncommon Settings, Crack, Crossovers/Fusions, Humor, Research, Trope Subversion & Inversion

Summary: It's Christmas Eve in the Jianghu, and Jin Guangyao is determined to show his father the meaning of charity and generosity and the brotherhood of man if it kills him.

(It will.)


Author’s Notes: You know, throughout this fandom I've seen fans extend grace towards all sorts of morally grey characters. There are Xue Yang stans, Su She truthers, Wen Ruohan fuckers and Meng Yao apologists, I've even seen Jin Zixun have something like a redemption arc! But the one thing I've never, ever seen is a redemption story for Jin Guangshan.

This fic isn't one either.

… Thanks for reading! I'm so sorry.

I referenced this copy of Charles Dickens' ACC while writing this fic. How come nobody told me Dickens was such a fuckin' comedian? The adaptations only ever quote the dramatic lines.


Reccer's Notes: This is one of the most meticulous, erudite, and considered pieces of crack I’ve ever read; the characters themselves are constantly lampshading the incompatibility of the crossover. Mikkeneko manages, somehow, to keep everyone in character while shoehorned into the Christmas Carol roles and to transpose this Christian morality play into the context of a Xianxia China unbothered by missionaries—demonstrating a thorough understanding of both the canons she’s Frankenstitched together. There’s a smidgen of Shakespeare in there too; the Christmas Carol scenario is a stage play, presented by Jin Guangyao in a Hamletesque ploy to lay a ruler’s sins bare.

Fanwork Links: https://archiveofourown.org/works/35699251
.